Cellular and wireless telephones have become important and ubiquitous tools of communication in today's society. Cellular and wireless telephones provide a convenient means by which a subscriber to services offered by a cellular or wireless communication services network provider/operator can speak with others by telephone from nearly any place at nearly any time. Additionally, a subscriber can conveniently be contacted by friends, family, or business associates by their dialing the telephone number assigned to the subscriber by the cellular/ wireless network operator no matter where the subscriber may be located within the geographical region served by the operator.
While cellular and wireless telephones (collectively "wireless telephones") have greatly facilitated communications among individuals, certain aspects of their operation continue to limit their effectiveness. One such limiting aspect of wireless telephones is their limited battery life. Because the batteries within the telephone are frequently exhausted, they must either be exchanged for a fresh battery, or recharged. However, of ten times users do not carry a fresh fully charged battery with them due to the inconvenience. Recharging a battery when attached to the phone typically precludes its use during such time and more importantly precludes it from being carried with the subscriber. Furthermore, users sometimes forget or fail to notice that their telephone battery is low and in need of recharging.
Consequently, wireless telephone users often use the telephone until the batteries therein are discharged. When a battery's charge is exhausted the user is of course unable to continue to use the telephone and may be greatly inconvenienced. Due to the nature of the electronics of a typical wireless telephone, the telephone in fact ceases to operate when the charge remaining in the battery drops below a certain level but, nevertheless, is not completely discharged.
If the battery charge is depleted during the course of a telephone conversation, the telephone will cease to operate. The cellular and/or wireless network will detect that the cellular subscriber is no longer "on-line" and will terminate the connection such that the other party to the call perceives being abruptly disconnected. The party with whom the subscriber was speaking accordingly does not know how or why the telephone conversation has been terminated. The other party may be confused or misled as to is why the conversation terminated. That party may mistakenly believe that the subscriber "hung up" on him or her. That party may needlessly worry that the subscriber encountered trouble or was involved in some kind of accident, if for example, the subscriber was speaking from an motor vehicle. That party may further become frustrated upon futilely attempting to contact the subscriber by dialing the subscriber's wireless telephone number while the telephone is without power. Moreover, if the cellular telephone battery becomes discharged while the user is not engaged in a telephone conversation, for example while either powered off or during standby mode, the user may not realize that the battery has ceased to power the phone such that important telephone calls may go unanswered. For example, a user who keeps a wireless telephone in a briefcase or coat pocket would likely not notice when the cellular telephone ceases to function after its battery is depleted.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to automatically provide a voice notification to the party speaking to the cellular subscriber when a wireless telephone battery is depleted of energy during a telephone conversation, thereby informing the other party that the subscriber's wireless telephone has been depleted of power and will be temporarily unavailable. The other party will consequently be informed of the nature of the call interruption, and can take action accordingly.
It is another object of this invention to automatically initiate the forwarding of calls placed to a subscriber's wireless telephone number when a subscriber's telephone battery runs out of energy while a call is not in progress, such that calls directed to the wireless telephone number are automatically redirected to a different number. For example, a subscriber could set his wireless telephone such that calls are forwarded to another predetermined telephone number, such as his office telephone number, when his telephone battery fails. Accordingly, an individual at the subscriber's office, such as a secretary, may then answer calls to the subscriber's telephone number, handle important matters and take appropriate alternative actions to contact the subscriber if necessary.
It is yet another object of this invention to automatically disable call forwarding, such that calls placed to a subscriber's wireless telephone number are actually received at the wireless telephone and not redirected, when the telephone is powered on after replacing or recharging a depleted battery. Therefore, once a subscriber exchanges or recharges the depleted battery and repowers the wireless telephone the subscriber can once again receive calls as the telephone will automatically cancel call forwarding. This feature provides increased convenience to the subscriber, and prevents the subscriber from missing telephone calls if the subscriber were to forget to manually cancel call forwarding.